NEWS AND NOTES

Waikato Independent, Volume VI, Issue 384, 13 June 1907, Page 6

NEWS AND NOTES

Her name was Majoric, and she was the sweetest child in the world, with all a child’s wonderful thirst for the most out-of-the-way information. She had asked her mother to explain to her what wireless telegraphy was. Majorie had often heard her father talking of wireless telegraphy, and she wanted to know all about it. So her mother tried to make it clear, and explained how there were two long sticks standing high in the > air a very long way from each other, and how a message was sent from the one stick and—“ Oh, I know," broke in Marjorie,. “ then God hears and tells the other people.” As it happened, the dress department of the big drapery emporium had sold clean out of mercerised fabrics, when a ■ stout lady in a black bonnet rolled in, and said imperiously to the youth behind the counter, “ 'Ave you any mesmerised muslin ? ” The polite shop assistant did not even smile. He explained that that class of goods had gone hopelessly out of fashion, but that the firm had just imported from Paris some beautiful samples of hypnotised silk. The customer accepted the substitute, and puffed away. “ And I get a commission on the sale of that remnant,” the assistant remarked thoughtfully as she disappeared. A young New York woman who had spent some time at Tuxedo came back with the well-marked impression that the manners of the smart set ought to be amended. “ A woman belonging to New York’s Four Hundred,” said she, “ was giving a piazza tea while I was there. A guest took a lump of sugar in her fingers instead of using the sugar tongs, and the hostess indignantly ordered the butler to take the sugar bowl away and fill it with , new sugar. The woman guest was so much insulted at this that she threw teacup, saucer, and all over the railing and went home.” The American “Arena” says that

some idea of the benefits to the public . resulting from the more rigid inspection . of meat, due to the exposures of Mr Upton Sinclair, Mr Eussell, and other ; .“muck-rakers,” may be gained from the , fact that recently, during a'period of two weeks, the federal and city inspectors at Chicago prevented the meat consumers from having almost half a million pounds ■ of diseased meat sold to them by the Beef Trust. During the fortnight in v question 467,214 pounds of meat were condemned by the inspectors as diseased. ■The Timaru Herald points out that in Argentine decoy sheep, kriown as Judas Iscariots, are used to lead others into the > stock trains. The trucks are loaded at ; the end, and stock can walk from one end ,w to another. In a very few minutes a ■ whole train is loaded or discharged without the terrible shunting our stock have to put up within New Zealand. Sheep f are loaded truck by truck (at the side) in this country, and every truck has to be ‘ moved..to make way for the next. Our contemporary holds that a change is badly needed. What an age of contradiction this is ! We establish hospitals to preserve life and we train armies [to destroy it! We send missionaries abroad to preach the Gospel of Peace, and we send soldiers to ■' convince the benighted of our sincerity ! , We call a man who fights a duel a hotj headed fool, and we call a nation that wages war a “ Power ! ” We hustle the poor beggar who steals a loaf into prison, and we honor the man who’steals the bread from a million mouths .as a great financier. But, then, as Emerson said, is the hob-goblin of little minds.”. Are bees more profitable than cows ? In Southland, according to Mr James Allan, President of the Southland Bee- , keepers’ Association, they are. Mr Allan 1 is a practical dairy farmer, with a very fine head of dairy cows, and he goes in ; ; for butter making on practical lines. ‘ Yet, despite the excellent prices that have : been ruling this season for dairy produce, Mr Allan affirms that he made more out of bis bees than his cows. His dairying •, returns were £2OO, and his honey £l6O ; - but after deducting the cost of maintain* ■' lug the cows he finds that the bees give the most profit, as their cost is practically nil. The proposal for the testing of dairy h herds to enable dairy farmers to ascer- , tain the milking value of. every cow, / which had the endorsement of the South ;' Island National Dairy Association, at its ;/ annual meeting in Dunedin last week, ■ is favourably spoken of by Mr E. Clifton, .. Chief Inspector of Stock for the colony, ■ who again points out that in Denmark ; the dairy farmers form themselves into s groups and establish testing Stations. A ■‘sample of the milk of each cow is tested y by an expert every now and then, and ; with the information gained in that 5 way, the farmer is able to cull ; the unprofitable animals, as we pointed out in a leading article ecently. The scheme works splendidly f n Denmark, and the Agricultural De- ' partment do not see why equally satis- ; factory results should not be secured in New Zealand.